Henry VIII´s children

When Henry VIII died in 1547, his only son became King Edward VI. But Edward was too young to rule. So England was governed by Protectors - first Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset, then the Duke of Northumberland.

Both dukes were Protestants, and keen on Church reform. They said that priests could marry. They made people use a new English prayer book. And they got rid of some of the statues and pictures from the churches.

Edward was always a sickly boy, and he died at the age of fifteen. His half sister Mary Tudor then became queen. Mary was a keen Catholic. She brought back the Catholic mass, and said the Pope was in charge of the Church in England again. Many Protestants fled abroad. About 300 who stayed were burned to death by Mary. One of them was Thomas Cranmer.

Burning the Protestants was unpopular. Mary's marriage to King Philip II of Spain was worse. Philip and his Spanish courtiers, who looked down on the English, were hated.

Mary died in 1558, and Henry VIII's other daughter, Elizabeth, came to the throne. She was twenty-five years old, unmarried, and alone. Most men (and women) said that she needed a husband to guide her. But who would the husband be? No-one wanted Philip of Spain, or any foreign king. And if the queen married an English lord, all the others would be jealous. Elizabeth's answer was not to marry at all.

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, page 19